Designer

……………….It’s always a great day when my nephew Chris comes to visit me…..When he was a little boy he was this angelic gangly skinny short kid…..with a deep raspy voice!……Jac adored him!….I called him Christopher Robyn, and I still do….Chris is one of my four Godsons…..When he comes to visit, Uncle Louie always has a list of things for him to FIX!…..My “HELLO BIRDIE”, bird feeder wasn’t working, and I wasn’t getting the live feed on my phone that I should have…..Within two minutes he had it working! His next job was to find out why some of my RING CAMERAS that are all over my house weren’t working….He looked at them and flipped the wall switch…..and viola….they were working again!!!…..Call me STUPID….but to my defense, I have workers at the house who have been using the electric power and maybe they accidently turn the light switch off….WELL THAT”S WHAT I”M GOING WITH!……On Saturday night I cooked dinner…I gave Chris a choice of a few of my best dishes, and he wanted ….”HOT ITALIAN SAUSAGE & PEPPERS & ROASTED POTATOES”…….Chris is great on the Barbeque…..but he doesn’t cook much, so I walked him through the steps of each dish which were really very very simple. He was surprised I cooked my peppers with olive oil, salt, pepper and lots of BALSAMIC VINEGAR. When everything is almost cooked I combine them all together…..Since they all cook at a different pace….timing for each dish is essential!……First the potatoes, then the peppers and then the sausage…..He love the way it all tasted with the Balsamic vinegar……I also gave him a choice of deserts….and he chose…..”LEMON CHEESE CAKE”………I had never made a lemon cheesecake so I googled a few receipts…..and chose parts of each I like d, and then improvised……My crust was a combination of Graham crackers, Tate’s Lemon Cookies that I put in my food processer, and I also put the sugar and lots of fresh lemon zest in the food processer so the juices of the lemon mixed with the sugar….and melted butter….that was my crust…….For the filling…cream cheese, sour cream, eggs, fresh squeezed lemon juice and a splash of vanilla, and a splash of lemon extract!….Then it baked in tin foil and a water bath for a hour……While it was baking I made lemon curd for the topping. It was a process for it to thicken, and I did have to add some powdered sugar and corn starch, but it came out great. There are some good receipts on line. It’s not really hard, but it takes patience…..lots of stirring……After the cake had cooled in the turned off oven for an hour it came out to cool completely…..The cheesecake and the curd went into the frig overnight…..On Sat. evening, when I was ready to serve it, I spread a generous amount of the curd all over the top……THEN……….I put more of the Tate’s Lemon Cookies into the processer and pulsed it a few short times so I had nice crumbs….and I put lots of them all over the top of the curd creating a nice thick layer……….OMG…….it was incredible!!!! My nephew said it was the BEST DINNER HE EVER HAD!!!! I had to agree it was delicious!……On Sunday morning we went to our favorite diner in Darien, and I had my usual….two fried eggs, HARD, with crisp bacon, and rye toast….no potatoes please….and lots of decaf coffee. Chris had a bacon, cheese and fried egg sandwich with a side of short stacked pancakes…..God bless him, and he has lost 18 lbs in two weeks! When we got back to the house Lou was replacing my front storm door with a new one….He and Chris shared cigars…..and then I gave Lou a large piece of the Lemon Cheese cake…..it was unanimous….THUMBS UP for the cheese cake……Chris went home with a big piece of the cheesecake so he could share it with my brother and my SIL Kathy……I hope he comes back sooner rather than later! I’ll make him another cheesecake!

……………..If you are a LEMON LOVER, like I am and my nephew Chris is….you’ll LOVE THIS…….My nephew even has lemon soaps, and body washes!….This was his request, and even through I had never made one before….I pretty much knew my way around a cheese cake….With a change of this and an addition of that…it came out INCREDIBLE!

………………Many of you are familiar with my “WHISPER KNITS” that I did for my Linea Collection………..This is wear it started…..With every collection I did at Anne Klein I always did a group of “MAGLIA UNITA” sweaters. That is the term for the type of knit….In the US we call it “every needle rib”. The Whisper knits were done with the same machines as the Italian sweaters, though these were in a different more expensive yarn….The three styles shown here were a…..TANK…..a JEWEL NECK SHORT SLEEVE PULL OVER……and a BUTTON FRONT CARDIGAN…..The PINK and LILAC sweaters were all trimmed in BLACK. There were matching light weight wool crepe pleated skirts to match…..All of the jewelry was done for this collection by my licensee for the ANNE KLEIN COUTURE JEWELRY COLLECTION…………….They still look great all of these years later.

……………….”BOLD BANDING”……….Contrast bold banding became a very STRONG message on the Spring 1992 collection……Whether it was a trim on a low back sweater worn by Yasmeen, or bands on a pleated skirt as in the center sketch, and the actual skirt on the right…..or black bands on a tailored elongated Jacket with all of the BELLS & WHISTLES at the far right……..Banding also worked on a more delicate IVORY WAVE jacket, and SKIRT in the photo at the upper center………BANDING was the EXCLAMATION POINT on many of my designs.

……………BOLD BANDING worked just as well in COLOR with BLACK…..as it did in it’s truest form of BLACK & IVORY…..sometimes adding a spot of color, as the pink leather weskit on CHRISTY, helped to make the contrast even stronger….Christy is wearing it all with a BLACK T SHIRT, and black sheer legs……..Yasmeen, on the left is wearing an elongated PINK & BLACK jacket with bold banding over an Ivory U-neck dress, also with bold black banding…….These were not clothes for the timid! These were clothes for powerful women!